Saturday, May 22, 2010

It's on!

I made plans to meet my Son in Bishop over Memorial Day weekend. They're having "Mule Days" that weekend, so the hotels are getting booked up. But, I was able to find a room with two queen size beds (we're both tall) on the second floor. So, we (hopefully) won't have to listen to any partiers stompin' around all night.

I'm bringin' a couple of guitars so that we can do some strumming and make some music. I have some "fake books" and, of course, binders of Blues tunes. I'll bring a couple of harps, even though I've mostly given up on learning to play. They're still fun. I just don't seem willing to dedicate the time necessary to get even moderately able to honk out a tune on one.

Still, it will be a great time. I miss my kids, especially the two that are so far away. This will be a good time and we'll probably do some fun stuff while there. I think this is the main event in Bishop each year and, so, there should be a boat load of goings on.

Friday, April 09, 2010

Kinda/sorta... I figured out how to add tweets to the blog. Unfortunately, I can't put them in the left sidebar without completely redesigning the whole template for my blog. As a result, the Twitter feed is temporarily at the bottom of the blog. This is more of a placeholder for the code than anything else. When I come up with a better layout, I'll be moving it up to where it will be more prominent. Until then, you'll probably be better off just following me... Hang in there, peeps!

Thursday night was even better! I wish everybody could have gone, but (be that as it may) I had a blast none-the-less. Tim was in fine form and sang three songs; then Dave, who was onstage with us and playing rhythm, called for a jam in E with the turn-around as 5-5#-5-1-stop. I'd never heard of such a thing, but but o...nce the drummer and I locked in we rocked the joint! Afterwards, Rich (the leader of the hosting band, Blue Haven) complimented me! Then, the two best bass players that come to these jams wanted to know what I was playing and several other people gave kudos. Those bassists have never even spoken to me in the past! I must be getting better. Woot!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Avatar wows!

Awe just saw Avatar and all I can say is OMG!!! The 3D effect was so clean and smooth that I just forgot about it. The characters were so well developed and the story line drew me in so that I didn't even notice the time going by (the movie is ~2.5 hr long)!

Critics are saying things like "New Flesh Covers Old Bones", but I'm not one to listen to critics. I gave that up back when they were all raving about American Beauty. How anyone could think that a movie about pedophilia, homosexuality, alchoholism, domestic violence, etc. deserved any sort of praise is beyond me. Critics are just "talking heads" with an opinion and a pulpit from which to blab about it.

So, if you've been wondering if the movie lives up to its hype the answer is an enthusiastic "Yes!" The world of Pandora is so intricate and filled with life that you're going to have to see it two of three times. Everything from the little bugs to the monstrous animals have a level of detail and movement that brings them to life in such a believeable way that you totally accept their existence!

The quiet interludes will make you catch your breath at their beauty. The big battle (you know it's coming) will have you crying only to be cheering and clapping at the finale. Don't wait for someone to spoil it for you. Go ASAP! See it in 3D, if at all possible. Then, go see it again just to take in all the awsomeness of this production.

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Out of the pool...

It's been a couple of weeks since I played out... anywhere! I've decided to stop torturing perfectly good musicians with my obviously amatuer abilities. The last jam I attended the lead guitarist insisted on teaching two of us (me included) Stormy Monday. Now, back when Sparks Music was still about music I was getting to where I had the changes down fairly well. But that was quite a while ago. I wanted to learn this song and one of the regular jammers was starting to get interested in Jazz, so I thought this would be the perfect bridge from Blues.

Well, we'd only tried it a couple of times when Sparks Music pulled the plug. That was back about January or March, I think. Since then I'd occasionally run into it at the jams, but it was about 40/60 original format/Allman Bros. version.

That is until the last couple of times I played out. It seems that someone decided that this song was my weak spot and that I "had to know it." When we got up on the stage it was announced that we'd do Stormy Monday and when I said that I didn't know it well enough to play it he went ahead and started explaining the changes. Now remember that we're standing in front of a bar full of customers waiting for the music to begin!

So, I asked told him, "Come on. You're not really going to teach us a song right now are you?" He just said it was easy enough and started playing the intro. Of course the drummer then started and we all had to follow along. Needless to say, it was a real train wreck.

So, I've taken myself out of circulation for a while and plan on going back when I'm confident. Until then, I've started trying to teach myself the Mississippi Saxaphone. That is, the harmonica (or mouth harp). I've seen it played by so many people (good and bad) that I couldn't resist figuring out what's up with it. Combined with this is the fact that I've met several extremely good players who have inspired me to take up this most emotive instrument. One of them even makes his own microphones and has sold them to some of the best harp players in the country!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

What the Koop?

Tweets, progs, etc.

Signed up for a Twitter account so that I could follow Windows 7 release and, perhaps, win something during their 7 week giveaways! Also, to simplify the "tweets" I've installed Twirl. It's an interesting little app, akin to the IM clients people are used to seeing for MS, Yahoo!, etc.

Oh, before I forget, check out my Wekoopa page and see what programs I'm using on my Windows 7 PC! This little program tracks my software usage and automatically builds a page with graphs, etc. for your perusing pleasure.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Hot all over

Well, last week was a roller-coaster ride of emotions. First we went to Las Vegas for the Beatles show at the Mirage. Larry (the lead guitarist for Dave's Garage) has been telling me for months that it was great and he was right! I was expecting a tribute band for some reason (we didn't read the whole marque) and got blown away by all of the acrobatics, high-flying and comedy routines woven into a story about Great Britain during the WWII decade. All, of course, held together with the great music of the Beatles.

On the way out, after the show, we noticed that underneath the main title of "The Beatles" with Fab Four grahpics juming all over it was a sub-title: Cirque du Soleil. This, of course, clears things up a great deal. Especially like, "What does flying 20' through the air between trampolines have to do with anything?" It's just great fun to do AND amazing to watch!

next post: Hot August Nights started off great, then fizzled (just a bit)